Morning Coffee - 9 November 2009

Welcome to Morning Coffee, brought to you by Lindsay Beyerstein with additional links from the UN Dispatch team. Every morning we survey foreign affairs and foreign policy news so you don't have to. We begin with the "Starting Five" items of the day -- these may not always appear on A-1, but they *are* the kinds of stories that will be buzzing in foreign capitals, the UN and wherever foreign policy minds roam.
Starting Five
IRAQ PASSES ELECTION LAW - On Sunday Iraq's parliament passed an election law that paves the way for elections in late January. Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and U.S. President Barack Obama praised the bill as a landmark achievement. The United Nations and the United States had both urged Iraq to pass the election law. The U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, Chris Hill said that the bill's passage keeps the U.S. "within the parameters" of its plan to draw down U.S. troop levels in Iraq to 50,000 by next August and leave the country entirely by 2011. Link
H1N1 FLU HITS AFGHANISTAN - The Afghan government has declared a state of emergency in response to H1N1 influenza, which has already killed 10 people in Kabul in under two weeks. Schools, universities, wedding halls and other public places have been shuttered for three weeks to slow the spread of the bug. Street vendors in Kabul are doing a brisk business in surgical masks. Link
HEAVY WATER - Seismologists are wondering if a massive reservoir helped trigger an earthquake that killed 80,000 people in China last year. Before the earthquake struck, the reservoir behind the Zipingpu Dam had filled with several hundred million tons of water in just a few years' time. A new analysis suggests that either water seepage or the sheer weight of the water could have destabilized a nearby fault and set off the quake. Link
U.S. COAL ASH BLAMED FOR DOMINICAN BIRTH DEFECTS - Coal ash from the United States is being blamed for birth defects in the Dominican Republic. Six years ago, a contractor hired by the Virginia-based AES Corp abandoned 50,000 tons of coal dust at a port near the village of Arroyo Barril. The poisonous dust sat there for three years until it was finally disposed of properly. According to a civil suit filed last week in Delaware, the dust is responsible for a surge in birth defects and other health problems afflicting local residents. Link
GIRAFFE SURGE IN NIGER - Giraffes are making a comeback in Niger. Niger's giraffes are a unique subspecies that is found nowhere else in Africa. Just a decade ago, local giraffe populations were on the brink of extinction. Today, thanks careful conservation efforts, an original herd of 50 individuals now numbers about 200. Link
Provocateurs
Daniel McGroarty in INVESTORS BUSINESS DAILY
"Twenty years ago, late on a Thursday evening in Berlin, the cement and concertina-wire symbol of the Cold War was breached, inadvertently opened by a botched answer of a flustered East German Communist Party apparatchik.Announcing a loosening in border-crossing policy, he was peppered with questions on when the change would take effect."Immediately," he said, shuffling his notes. "Without delay." "Also in Berlin?" presses a reporter. "Yes, yes," comes the response. "
Ethan Katz in COUNCIL ON HEMISPHERIC AFFAIRS
"Apparently the U.S. plan under discussion was never meant to be implemented, and de facto leader Roberto Micheletti’s alleged agreement was probably little more than a hoax. While the new deal was feted as ending the conflict, such celebration may have proved to be premature as progress has since reached a standstill, which perhaps was the intended outcome all along. On Tuesday, Honduran Congressional leaders postponed calling the legislative body out of recess in order to verify the accords, and it remains to be seen whether they will even bother to endorse the agreement, especially after the State Department so effectively sabotaged the peace process. "
Maurice Chittenden and Steven Swinford in TIMES ONLINE
"American newspapers and magazines may stop selling copies in Britain and block access to their websites because of our draconian libel laws. An article that would be regarded as free speech in America under its constitution’s first amendment becomes actionable in the High Court in London once it is deemed to have been published here, however small the readership. "
Water Cooler

The chief counsel of the House Foreign Affairs Committee is stepping down to lead the Washington office of Humanity United, a Silicon Valley-based NGO. During his nine years as a senior committee staffer, David Abramowitz worked on several pieces of legislation designed to fight human trafficking. He will continue that fight at Humanity United.

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